Charlotte

Chapter One: Part One

Chapter One: A family like ours
Part One: A Saturday like every other



Norfolk, Virginia, 1989

"And then I said to him: «Eat shit and die»!"

His audience, who was absorbing his words faster than a sponge bath is absorbing water, started laughing so hard that I was sure that the ground was shaking. A woman that I saw only once before at the dinner hosted by aunt Roxy and uncle Vinnie, touched her almost naked chest with a hand whilist with her other hand she dramatically wiped a non-existent tear from her eye. She batted her fake-looking eyelashes and she smiled seductively to uncle Vinnie, even though he didn't saw her. He couldn't possibly seen her even if he would've want it with his whole non-existent heart; Aunt Roxy was next to him.

I straighten my back while sitting on the wood chair and I sigh, smiling politely at my uncle's far from amusing story. Dad's empty chair hasn't been taken yet by a guest who didn't have the opportunity to stay with my uncle at the table, but if he was going to keep speaking on the phone so much, he'll have to stand.

"Ma, can I dip now?"

Tara, Vinnie's and Roxy's only daughter, said from across the table, looking bored as ever. With her eyelids painted with blue and her gigantic round earrings, Tara looked like she was ready for a night out and not another tedious Saturday dinner.

"I gotta meet Tony! He's been waiting at Lucy's for about twenty now!"

My uncle Vinnie's smile quickly paled and he fixed his blue eyes on Tara. His right eye was twitching - I don't know if he knew about it or not - and his rage could be easily seen on his face, so merely everyone sitted at the table found their way to the door, apologising for leaving.

Mommy, who was sitting next to me, pushed her lips one against the other, making them a perfectly straight line and grabbed the table's end with a hand. Nobody but me noticed it so I kept my mouth shut.

"It's Saturday, Tara", Vinnie told his daughter. His voice was so terrifyingly calm that it gave me chills.

On Saturdays we all usually gather - without any friends, like this Saturday - and we have a nice dinner like a big family that we say we are. Even though neither my Mommy nor Granny like the sound of it, both of them decided not to argue, just because uncle Vinnie came up with the idea.

"But I'm here all the time and I didn't say shit!", Tara was speaking so fast that her bizarre accent - her street accent - was kicking in.

Tara was a year older than me and she was a Senior while I was a Junior, and she has so many different passions from mine. I spent my free time painting and listening to Dad's music, and when he was home from work we usually went on this long lasting road trips with his convertible. Of course I went out with my girl friends, Kristy and Ophelia, but meeting with any boy, even if he was a classmate, was forbidden to me. To Tara, obviously, wasn't.

"Why do I always came, when Charlotte here doesn't come two weeks at a time?"

Vincent looks my way and his blue, full of fury eyes, didn't throw arrows at me, like they did to Tara. He stares at me calmly, with a quite odd gaze. He ran a hair through his jet black hair even though it was swimming in hair gel. He watched Tara again, with his predator eyes.

I breathe easy when I find myself out of danger. It was true, I missed a couple of our special dinners, but Mommy assured me that uncle Vinnie didn't mind.

Under the table, Mommy takes my small hand in her warm one and caress mine with her thumb. It was her gesture of protectiveness, that was supposed to calm me down if I was scared. I had every reason to be scared.